Amazon’s advertising landscape has evolved into a $30+ billion industry, and success now requires more than basic pay-per-click (PPC) tactics. Two advanced tools have emerged as the modern “power stack” for savvy media buyers and Amazon sellers: Amazon’s Demand-Side Platform (DSP) and Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC). This combination enables brands to both reach highly targeted audiences across the web and analyze customer journeys in unprecedented depth. In this article, we’ll explain Amazon DSP and then explore how pairing it with AMC can unlock powerful new advertising capabilities.

What is Amazon DSP?

Amazon DSP is Amazon’s programmatic advertising platform for buying display, video, and audio ads both on and off Amazon. It gives brands access to a massive programmatic ad network powered by Amazon’s first-party consumer data. Unlike Sponsored Ads that appear only on Amazon’s site or app, DSP campaigns can reach audiences across Amazon-owned properties (like IMDb, Twitch, Fire TV) as well as a broad network of third-party websites and mobile apps. In other words, DSP lets you engage Amazon’s audience even when they’re not shopping on Amazon, tapping into rich shopping and browsing signals for precise targeting.

Key capabilities of DSP include advanced audience targeting and retargeting beyond what PPC ads offer. Advertisers can target users by demographics, interests, lifestyle, in-market segments, and behaviors derived from Amazon’s trillions of shopper data points. For example, you can retarget shoppers who viewed a product but didn’t purchase, or reach lookalike audiences similar to your past customers. This deterministic first-party data advantage means ads can be served to high-intent consumers well along the purchase path – for instance, people who viewed or bought similar products – yielding higher conversion efficiency than typical third-party cookie targeting.

Another unique strength of DSP is the creative freedom and reach. DSP supports custom static and video ads, even audio ads, allowing branded creatives that aren’t possible with the templated Sponsored Ads. And because DSP ads run on a Cost-per-mille (CPM) model (pay per 1,000 impressions) rather than pay-per-click, they are well suited for campaigns focused on brand awareness, consideration, and retargeting. You can run upper-funnel ads (like a streaming TV spot for your product) to build awareness, then retarget interested viewers with display ads, guiding them down the funnel.

However, Amazon DSP is a premium tool with certain requirements. There’s typically a significant minimum spend commitment – around $35,000/month for an Amazon-managed DSP seat, though working with a DSP partner agency can reduce this minimum to ~$10K. Using DSP also requires expertise in programmatic advertising (e.g. setting bids, frequency caps, and defining audience segments), so it’s often leveraged by larger brands or agencies. In short, DSP offers unparalleled reach and targeting precision, but brands must be ready to invest and have the know-how (or the right partners) to manage it effectively.

Importantly, Amazon DSP provides closed-loop measurement that ties ad impressions to actual shopping outcomes on Amazon. Because Amazon owns the retail platform, DSP advertisers can directly see how their ads translate into product detail views, add-to-cart events, and purchases – delivering tangible ROI metrics. This immediate attribution of sales to ad spend is a big advantage for optimization. And as we’ll see, it becomes even more powerful when combined with deeper analytics in Amazon Marketing Cloud.

What is Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC)?

Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) is a secure, privacy-safe, cloud-based analytics platform (a “clean room”) provided by Amazon Ads. It allows advertisers to perform custom analytics on advertising performance and build audiences using pseudonymized signals from Amazon advertising and their own data. In simpler terms, AMC is a data warehouse and analysis tool that unifies data across Amazon Ads channels (including Sponsored Ads and DSP) and potentially your first-party customer data, enabling holistic measurement of your marketing efforts.

With AMC, advertisers can query detailed, event-level data to get insights that go beyond standard ad console reports. For example, AMC can show the full customer journey: you could see if a customer first saw a DSP display ad, later clicked a Sponsored Product ad, and eventually purchased – all pieced together anonymously. Amazon describes AMC’s benefit as providing an in-depth understanding of customers’ journeys across media channels and quantifying advertising impact both on Amazon and beyond (including your own website).

A core feature of AMC is the ability to build custom audience segments from your analysis. Using SQL-based queries (or Amazon’s new no-code query builder), you can define extremely granular audiences – for instance, “shoppers who viewed our product detail page and also saw our video ad but didn’t purchase in the last 30 days.” AMC will crunch through the data to identify those users. These bespoke audience lists can then be exported and directly activated in Amazon DSP for targeting. This means AMC isn’t just for reporting; it directly feeds into campaign execution by creating high-value audience segments that DSP can reach.

Amazon Marketing Cloud is privacy-safe by design – all data is anonymized and aggregated, and your own data inputs (like CRM files) cannot be extracted by Amazon. Historically, using AMC required SQL coding skills, but Amazon has been lowering the barrier. They introduced AMC “Solutions” (a no-SQL analysis toolkit) and an AI-powered SQL query generator that allow advertisers to create custom queries or audiences with plain language (lowering the technical barrier). In fact, as of 2025 Amazon is beta-testing a natural language audience builder where you can type a request like “Create an audience of shoppers who viewed my product pages and saw my streaming TV ads but didn’t purchase in the last 30 days” and AMC will generate the query for you. This is making advanced analytics more accessible to marketers who aren’t data engineers.

In summary, AMC acts as the brain of the operation – crunching data from across your campaigns to find actionable insights and audiences – while DSP is one of the main brawn execution channels to act on those insights. Used together, they form a powerful cycle of insight and action.

Why Combine AMC & DSP? The Modern Power Stack

Bringing Amazon’s DSP and Marketing Cloud together unlocks capabilities that neither tool could achieve alone. Here are several reasons this combination is considered the modern power stack for Amazon advertisers:

Full-Funnel Visibility & Attribution: By using AMC alongside DSP, brands get a holistic view of how upper-funnel and mid-funnel ads contribute to bottom-funnel sales. Amazon’s own analysis found that shoppers exposed to both DSP ads and Sponsored Ads were 25× more likely to purchase than those who saw only a Sponsored Product ad, and brands saw 21% more new-to-brand sales by adding DSP to their mix. These kinds of multi-touch insights become visible when you analyze data in AMC. Similarly, a third-party study by Perpetua noted Sponsored Product campaigns had 19% higher conversion rates and 3% higher ROAS when combined with DSP ads. AMC enables advertisers to attribute credit across these touchpoints – for example, discovering that a DSP video ad helped drive a later Sponsored Ad click and sale. With custom attribution models in AMC, you can move beyond last-click attribution and properly value your DSP impressions for the conversions they assist.
Advanced Audience Targeting with Real Behavior Data: AMC lets you analyze real shopper behavior to create ultra-refined audience segments, which you can then target via DSP. This goes far beyond basic interest or demographic targeting. For instance, you might identify in AMC a segment of “high-intent cart abandoners” – people who viewed or added to cart but didn’t buy. You could then re-engage that segment with tailored DSP ads offering a discount or reminder. One apparel brand that layered DSP retargeting onto their strategy (after identifying high-intent shoppers) saw a 96% year-over-year sales increase, achieving a DSP return on ad spend (ROAS) of 5.49. The ability to leverage first-party data is also enhanced: Amazon’s Ads Data Manager now allows secure import of your CRM or email list into AMC and DSP. By overlaying your own customer data with Amazon’s data in AMC, you can create enriched audiences (e.g. your past buyers who also fit certain Amazon in-market segments) and then reach them through DSP campaigns.
Optimized Spend and Efficiency: The AMC+DSP stack helps ensure every advertising dollar is working harder. AMC’s analytics can reveal which audience segments or ad sequences yield the best results, so you can allocate DSP budget more efficiently. For example, AMC might show that customers who saw two DSP ads before an Amazon search were more likely to convert than those who only saw one – indicating that a certain frequency or sequence is worth the spend. Advertisers can then adjust DSP frequency caps or budgets accordingly. Case studies underscore the efficiency gains: one brand used AMC insights to adjust their DSP targeting strategy and achieved a 366% increase in ROAS. Another brand leveraged AMC audiences to drive a 16× growth in new-to-brand orders. In practice, this means lower wasted impressions and higher return, because decisions are based on data, not guesswork.
Path-to-Purchase and Incrementality Analysis: AMC enables deep path analysis – you can map out the sequence of ad exposures that lead to a conversion. This helps in designing better cross-channel strategies. For instance, you might discover that many customers engage with a DSP display ad, then search on Amazon and click a Sponsored Brand ad before purchasing. Knowing this, you can intentionally run DSP campaigns to generate awareness and searches for your brand, then capture that interest via Sponsored Ads. AMC also helps measure incrementality – determining how much additional sales your DSP campaigns are driving that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. By comparing exposed vs. unexposed audiences in a clean-room environment, you can quantify the true lift from DSP. This gives media buyers confidence in scaling budgets: if AMC shows a certain DSP audience has a high new-to-brand customer lift, you can justify investing more in that tactic.
Continuous Improvement via Test-and-Learn: Using AMC with DSP encourages a data-driven test-and-learn approach. You might run multiple DSP audience strategies (different creatives, audience criteria, or frequency settings) and then use AMC to analyze which approach led to better downstream metrics (like repeat purchase rate or higher average order value). This iterative optimization is much easier when you have a flexible analytics tool. Over time, the AMC+DSP stack essentially builds its own feedback loop: DSP executes the campaigns, AMC analyzes the results in detail, and those insights inform the next DSP campaign optimization. Brands leveraging this cycle can outpace competitors still relying on siloed data or gut instinct.

In short, combining DSP’s expansive reach with AMC’s analytical depth gives Amazon advertisers a commanding view of their marketing funnel and the ability to take precise action at scale. It’s a modern, data-driven approach that aligns with how today’s consumers interact with brands across multiple touchpoints.

Implementing the AMC + DSP Stack

While the benefits are clear, it’s important to recognize that implementing AMC and DSP requires the right resources and strategy:

Technical and Analytical Skills: AMC in particular has a learning curve (historically involving SQL and complex data analysis). Advertisers should ensure they have analytical talent or training to take advantage of it. Amazon has introduced easier tools and even a certification for AMC‍, but gaining value from AMC still means asking the right business questions and interpreting the results. For DSP, skills in programmatic buying and creative optimization are key. If these skills are lacking in-house, consider partnering with experts.
Partnering with Experienced Agencies: Many brands turn to specialized Amazon advertising agencies or Amazon Ads partners to manage this advanced stack. The right agency can provide both DSP campaign execution and AMC analytics as a service, accelerating your success. For example, Skale Strategy (ranked a top Amazon marketing agency) is known for in-depth data analysis and customized AMC solutions that help optimize ad spend and targeting. Working with an agency that has its own Amazon DSP seat can also lower the cost barrier – agencies can often onboard clients with smaller budgets since they aggregate volume across accounts (allowing minimums well below Amazon’s standard ~$35K). In short, an experienced partner can handle the heavy lifting of query development, audience building, and media buying, while you receive the insights and results.
Budget Planning: Ensure you allocate sufficient budget not just for media spend but also for the analysis phase. AMC itself doesn’t charge usage fees to advertisers, but deriving insights may require time and possibly additional tools or data science resources. Similarly, DSP’s impact often builds over time – it’s not a one-and-done campaign. Plan for a few months of learning and optimization. As noted, if you’re a smaller seller still maximizing Sponsored Products with limited funds, it might be wise to first solidify your PPC foundation before venturing into DSP. But if you have the ambition and resources to scale, shifting into the AMC+DSP power stack can be a game-changer.

Conclusion

Amazon DSP and Amazon Marketing Cloud represent the cutting edge of Amazon’s advertising ecosystem – one focused on execution and reach, the other on insight and planning. Individually, each is powerful; together, they form a modern marketing powerhouse. By leveraging DSP’s ability to programmatically engage the right shoppers (on Amazon and beyond) and AMC’s ability to illuminate which strategies truly work, brands can drive more efficient, effective campaigns. Media buyers and Amazon sellers who adopt this data-driven, full-funnel approach are positioning themselves to outperform competitors and navigate the increasingly complex consumer journey with confidence.

In a world where every impression and click matters, the AMC + DSP stack helps ensure you’re delivering the right message to the right audience at the right time – and crucially, measuring and learning from every step of that journey. Whether you deploy it in-house or with the help of seasoned partners like Skale Strategy, this modern power stack is becoming indispensable for those looking to accelerate growth on Amazon and beyond. The brands that master AMC and DSP today will be the ones setting the pace in Amazon advertising tomorrow.